2023-04-02: .saved from a miracle - palau fallinG
- Log: .saved from a miracle - palau fallinG
- Cast: Yuliana Kafim, Elisa Kafim
- Where: The Silent Castle, Kaffeklubben Island
- Date: 2023-04-03 (0097-04-02 ICly)
- Summary: Elisa wrenches Yuliana from the battle to stop Palau... to save her from the miracle Rita meant to enact. She saves her from Zoltan's bazooka fire, just the same. Yuliana struggles to put aside her resentment over losing the control she never had, and tells Elisa how the first miracle of Axis Shock failed to reach her. They promise to bring the night to Earth again, in defiance of the Dawn.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"No, not yet! Stop! I can still--!!"
Yuliana pounds on the screen of her console; Yuliana reaches back, to grasp her clutch, only to find it stuck under her hands. Her helplessness and her hopelessness is compounded as she's thrown away, able only to watch her sensors as those feeds of Rita are consumed by green.
To her, travel through the gate is comfortable and familiar -- with all the familiar comfort of collapse.
"-- fight--!!"
That's the next word from her throat, as she impacts forward against her restraints from the landing. She still tries to operate her machine; still, it is locked to her. She cannot know how her panic mirrors Zoltan's, unable to change or control what will come.
It's more desperate than it seems.
Because those bazooka rounds she was evading -- she can't evade them, any more, as the Silent Castle's stables resolve around her, kept in the magic circle permanently drawn in their personal hangar. Outrunning and outwitting them was such a natural thing, on the hull of Neo Zeong. Now she can only watch, as they curve with her through that portal, too large in the enclosed space. (The ceiling clears 30 metres, in here; it's little enough room for the ordinance to round on her without catching on a wall.)
Even if she could move, there's nowhere to run.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
No. Now.
Elisa Kafim stands in the hangar, in her black robes. The tablet on which she was watching the battle is set aside, black candles still steaming where their flames were brushed out by the sudden appearance of the wanzer.
They do not matter. This matters.
The witch's hands lift. She sees these rounds; she knew they would come. So the Abyssal Coil roars to life in a sudden flash of dark power, and Elisa draws upon the force it has generated in the battle.
The rounds suddenly hit 'nothing', the air itself distorting around them. Their explosions start to rock the hangar, except that there's a 'tear' in space, and little by little the orange-hot blasts are drawn in all at once over the course of less than a second. In moments, they are gone as if they had never been.
"...I will not allow that foul magic to touch you," Elisa's voice booms through the hangar.
She seethes. The outcome they had to prevent is shattered. But at what cost?
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFrjMq4aL-g Transistor - Paper Boats
And just like that, Yuliana comes back -- now.
She comes back and she is not alone; there her wife stands, glorious and dark, and Yuliana sees through her cameras the way her hands lift up. In her cockpit, she is privileged to see the conclusion, just the same -- the way those switches flick without her touching them at all, the readout on the screen as the Coils build power, the way a lever clunks forward under its own power.
(Elisa's power.)
Nothing hits the rounds, and Yuliana sees, in her sensor readouts, that heated motion which so quickly is eaten to cold stillness. She pants, in her bindings, grasping a clutch which won't move in a white-knuckled hand.
"Elya," she takes a deep, shuddering breath, and sighs, fragile and relieved.
Yuliana's gaze falls down to the screens, and she murmurs: "The generation platform's power in your hands... it's magnificent..." That is, perhaps, a word for it. She is soaked in sweat from the tension of the battle, let alone being trapped in that final attack, and her heart hammers still, even as her sensors universally report safety.
(Can they possibly, when Palau hurtles towards Earth? How can she trust them to stop it..?)
Yuliana reaches back, to unplug the sensors from her helmet; without the feedback, the crest at Da Xukong's head falls back down, clunk-kachunk. She removes her helmet; she pushes up her bracing. She unstraps herself. Her gloves she leaves in the cockpit, just the same. She cranks the cockpit release -- this, at least, she's able to operate -- and looks out to the witch, a hand on the side. "You saved me again..." Yuliana says, without the benefit of radio transmission, this time; perhaps Elisa's ears are keen enough to Yuliana's voice to hear her, anyway.
Tension builds in her arms -- still quite strong, even if she looks so gentle beside her wife -- as she vaults herself over the side of the cockpit, to slide down Da Xukong's arm and one of its many crawling legs, with a hop skip and a jump interspersing the motions. She hurries to Elisa, of course, naturally; all but throws herself into her, her pilot's normal suit to Elisa's witch's robes, embracing her tightly.
It's only after she's come to her, only after she's settled in her arms, that she looks up to Elisa and asks: "Why...?"
And her wounded eyes yearn for an explanation, as she always has.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa does what is necessary. Elisa's dark hands emerge from the sleeves of her robe to work her magic; her face is a mask of concentration. There is much that she can do here, in the seat of her power, with the Abyss Engine's force.
'Magnificent', Yuliana says, and...
Elisa's ears are keen enough. "I will always save you," Elisa promises her wife. And then she notices the way she slides down, hurries to her, and her arms are wide to hold Yuliana. She sees the wound in those eyes...
"You did extremely well," Elisa says. "Your power is glorious. But I could not allow that foul magic to touch you. I do not know what would happen, if you were afflicted by such a power radiating to such an extent. I do not wish to learn."
"We will allow their perverse miracle, this time. We will not oppose the stopping of Palau. ...But not on you. No, never on you."
"And you shall be ready to face him when he returns, yes?"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Elisa will always saved her; Elisa HAS always saved her.
Never mind that Yuliana might have been able to save herself, if only she had control of the situation. (Never mind that she had a friend with her, who might have saved her, just the same.)
No -- no, her wife is glorious.
And her arms open wide, and Yuliana collapses into them, and she is home, home, home. She glows with Elisa's esteem, a smile breaking over the conflict on her face; it fades only by fractions, as Elisa deems that magic so foul.
"Their miracles... were never able to reach me," Yuliana murmurs, as if she knows.
She was there.
(There is a reason the 'miracle' which Rita achieved in front of the Institute was simply forcing Yuliana to physically stop and consider what everyone was saying about her wife.)
"Do... do you think they'll really stop it..?" Yuliana is a blind seer; she remembers only the pitched desperation of the battle, before she was stolen away. "Is that... really how this world is saved..? Why? Why are they always the ones to change fate?!" Newtypes, surely, as Yuliana travels from hope to bitterness.
Her hands ball up Elisa's robes in fists, for a moment, before she sighs and sinks against her. "Yes," she agrees, pique in her eyes as she gazes up to Elisa. "He should never have come back here... does he think his immortality will save him? I will never weary of killing him. Over, and over, and over..!"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Nevermind any of that. They are glorious together.
"Of course they cannot," Elisa says. "You are too pure for such things. You should not be forced to be near such perversion."
She was there, of course.
"I do," Elisa says. "Their Alliances and their 'miracles'," Elisa says, "They will be sufficient this time." But the world is saved, by... "They believe it salvation. But in accepting this 'salvation', they risk greater ruin. They do not understand, yet. But they will."
Elisa holds Yuliana there, careful, gentle, and then begins to turn them towards warmth, towards the internals of the Castle.
"He should not," Elisa agrees. "'Immortality' of such a stripe is a pale imitation. They call themselves 'inevitable'... They do not know the meaning of the word."
"You will," not 'we', this time, "Destroy him in time. And I will be always watching, always behind, to see your power, to safeguard you."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Together...
"Mm... you're right," Elisa always is, and Yuliana sinks into her. "I should value myself more... there's no need for me to endure such a wretched thing." ... it's the best Rita can do.
So, it isn't good enough.
"So... we're letting it happen, this time... I guess it can't be helped." Yuliana is easily led to the Castle's courtyard doors, open to them. She stays close to Elisa, buries her hands in her billowing robes. (Her normal suit, unfortunately, is designed for space; it can handle the cold of the far North.)
Her expression is dark, to speak of Char Aznable. You, Elisa says, and she accepts it without question, with a little dip of her head. "I will," she agrees, she affirms, she promises. "And... yes... you always are with me, just as She is," Yuliana grasps Elisa's arm, as they walk, into the warmth of their halls.
"..." Her lips part, and her protests, she finds, are elided; envy-green eyes glance aside, before they look up to Elisa, again. "I'm truly fortunate to have your constant supervision support," she surrenders, instead, sentence all tripping over itself. "Since I get so caught up in the moment... you really know what's best for me."
And if there's a little twitch in her fingers and her brow, telling Elisa (telling herself) something like that, surely she's just bothered about Aznable.
"I just got so angry with that wretched man... he presumed what was best for the Earth was decimating it and forcing humanity into space! To force everyone into becoming those abominations! And then he presumes that false prophet was --" Amuro Ray, that is, "oh, and now he presumes to show up wanting to bring everything to an end! How could he?!"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"We cannot know what would happen. Perhaps you would prevent it from taking place. Perhaps it would wound you. With such power... It is better not to test it."
The courtyard approaches; Elisa will lead them through it into the castle proper, heedless of the cold herself, even as frost will gather on her hair. She does not particularly mind that.
"Of course," she says, and she notices the way Yuliana trips over her sentence there. "My support is unconditional," she says. "Your single-mindedness in battle is admirable; it protects you from distraction, it keeps you strong! ...But it does mean that it is important for someone to look out for you, too."
Hmmm. Perhaps she'll have to...
"It is arrogance," she says. "Arrogance, and the power of the wretched Dawn." To force everyone... "We will allow none of his plans to come to fruition. Your courage will see to that, my Yuliana."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"But.... I know, Elya," Yuliana protests, though her voice is small.
"When that horrible conflux of that false prophet and the red comet passed over us, it could not reach me. Look at the footage... you'll find a little dark spot in the light. They say it is dead pixels on their cameras. They are wrong."
She's sad, as she reflects: "It was so heavy..."
Axis, that is.
"But... back then, my existence was wrapped tightly around myself. I was not so expansive as I can be, now. Claiming so much for the lacuna... I guess we can't know what would happen," Yuliana concedes, and sighs. "You're right..."
Elisa is right, even though Yuliana just explained how much she does know.
Yuliana allows herself to be led, through the courtyard, with its hardy far-north flowers which manage to bloom despite the bitter cold.
Their petals are all pitch black.
They're beautiful, aren't they?
She smiles, as Elisa is so generous with her support. (Isn't it wonderful?) "Oh, Elya," she sighs, and if there's anything there at the edges of the affection in her eyes, it's surely the stress of the battle. She assures Elisa, she reminds herself: "You're so reliable... boyevaya podruga, I truly rely on you." Literally, it's a loving term calling Elisa her combat friend; figuratively, it recognises how Elisa will be at her side, no matter what she faces.
She was never this reliant on someone else, before. ... that's the wonder of marriage.
Her cheeks colour -- and not just from the chill -- as Elisa praises her courage. "You're so kind to me," she smiles, her anger momentarily alleviated. "Yes... we'll certainly deny him." Her gaze tracks up, to the eternal morning sky near the North Pole. With that silent comment, she promises: "Night will come again."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Hmmmm. Yuliana knows, and she protests it. "Of course," she says. "You would know such a thing. But it is exactly as you say; the changed you, the intensified you... I do not know if it would harm you, to be close to it, now. It might be more than 'heavy'," she says.
But she shouldn't want to be a part of such a thing. Elisa is... perturbed. What should she do about this...?
The beautiful flowers do not comfort her in the moment. "I wish to be reliable," she says. And that is true. But...
"Night will come again," she agrees.
Perhaps sooner in some places...
"We shall see it."
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Yeah..." Yuliana trails off, with the ghost of a frown, for a moment. "Yes, of course... I don't think of such things. Of course you'd worry..." She feels terribly thoughtless, as Elisa reminds her just how much she's changed, between Axis Shock and now.
She sighs, and puts aside her anger over being yanked from the battle in favour of reassuring her wife. "You only wanted to protect me... thank you."
What should she want?
She thought she wanted to be there, to stop it from happening, but...
Yuliana lifts a hand from the black of Elisa's robes to cup her frosting cheek, and perhaps she can feel the way her fingers twitch, with the cold sensation. "Don't worry," she reassures her, tenderly. "All will be well." The same thing Elisa's told her, all this time.
"Your wishes make your soul shine, zhenushka, dark and brilliant."